ICT In Information Management

The Review of the Topic: Implementing ICTs in the Least Developed Countries.

By

Nwobu, O.E. PGDIM/EDUC/49550
&
Anibueze, Chibuike H. PGDIM/EDUC/50380

Introduction
Comparing LDCs to the industrialized countries in terms of Information technologies, the differences are unimaginable. Some countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, South America and Mahgreb regions – and China – will take 15 to 20 years, countries in the Northern Africa and the Oceania region, some 30 years while sub-Saharan Africa and central Asian countries will take like 50 to 100 years.

Nevertheless, since, the industrialized countries still devise telecottages and local learning centers to broaden access to ICTs deepen the skill base, and build new competencies, it is essential that the LDCs devise innovative models of their own to surmount the difficulties of emulating the industrialize countries in their one person – one telephone – one internet access point model (Gillespie and Cornford 1997, Taylor et al 1997).

The model that LDCs need to create will be cost effective, sharing of information resources as well as the hardware and software that facilitate access to networks.
However, there are constraints to achieving the goal of harnessing ICTs to development priorities in the LDCs e.g. some LDCs have highly sophisticated digital telecommunication infrastructure (de Cuellar 1995). If the costs of usage could be kept at an affordable level, new technologies, such as multi – point, multi- channel distribution systems and cellular radio, could be used to alleviate congestion on older terrestrial networks in other countries. A serious problem for network availability is the absence of reliable power sources. Internet being a more important mode of information exchange, the configuration of stand – alone intranet and internet usage to optimize availability terminal and network use, needs to be considered (UNESCO 1996). Rural areas of the LDCs are disadvantaged because of the limited extent of their national grinds (de Oliveira 1991) as ICTs relies on electricity. This reliance of ICTs on electricity further adds to the complexity of the trade off between the utilities, financial viability etc each of which has to be assessed carefully. Although electricity is important to economic development but without transportation, banking and other infrastructures modern life is almost impossible (de Oliveira 1991:78)

Mainly shortage of electricity is a major deterrent to the use of ICTs and for LDCs to develop and implement ICT systems in ways that are responsive to their needs and priorities, there is no ‘ideal – type’ model that will fit the requirements of each country. However, Govt. and other stakeholders in the LDCs should develop plans for strengthening their national infrastructures. The poverty of these countries means that there is an absence of ‘buyer power’ in the potential ICT-using population according to the author. LDCs need ‘accesses’ to many things – medical facilities, water, jobs, money and other resources. LDCs, like other countries, need to build the capabilities to assess and evaluate their own priorities and to devise strategies that are responsive to their development goals. The internet’s explosive growth is a very important ‘driver’ of the global information infrastructure vision. In OECD countries a strong association has been found between telecommunication market liberalization, competition, and growing numbers Access Providers and users, LDCs would see substantial growth in the use of the internet if they opened their markets to competition and introduced a radical restructuring of prices for network access and use. However, market liberalization on its own is unlikely to spark the massive increases in internet use that have occurred in the industrialized countries and some of the newly industrializing countries. The importance of information available on the internet should be addressed too.

Many other factors are responsible for network interoperability and interconnection and it needs to be addressed through policy measures with respect to standardization and procurement specification for network operators.
1. the regulatory authorities must possess an adequate amount of technical knowledge
2. there is need for incentives for cooperation among all those who are responsible for managing networks.
3. lower prices resulting from competitive pressures still must be high enough to provide a commercial return to private sector information providers and in some countries moral and ethnical traditions encourage governments to suppress access to the World Wide Web using “intelligent agents’ and to control the use of various kinds of bulletin boards and internet-based discussion groups.
In general, the overall use of ICTs remains very limited in LDCs, for e.g. In Ethiopia, the application of ICTs in the health sector is localized mainly in libraries that are using CD-ROMs for database searches. Infrastructure constraints limit information sharing among organizations and e-mail exchange is very difficult. New applications are out of reach due to cost, absence of appropriate infrastructure, or the specialized capabilities necessary for their effective use. There are severe shortages of up-to-date, relevant information source, and skilled employee, coupled with inadequate infrastructure. These need to be looked into in the LDCs so as to encourage the use of ICT. The diffusion of ICT into Africa and Nigeria in general has been at a snail's pace such that the gap between information-rich developed countries and African countries continues to widen everyday. However, the implementation of ICT application is still a problem to Nigerians because of many factors, ranging from the lack of funds to fluctuations in the supply of electricity. This has indirectly affected the level of usage of ICT in Nigeria by the lecturers and it has hindered access to scholarly publications useful for research in academic sectors. Despite many constraints, the use of information technology is growing among lecturers in Nigerian universities.

In the LDCs, national information infrastructures offer access to useful information and it depends on the type of information that is accessible and affordable from a variety of electronic sources. The internet is one of the potential outlets for governments and other stakeholders in LDCs to ‘publish’ information and share the results of ICT applications. There are a growing number of sites with information about LDCs but not like the industrialized countries. Many of the commercial sites are managed by webmasters in the United States, United Kingdom, or Australia while those originated from the LDCs tend to contain outdated information.

In conclusion, to implement ICT applications to alleviate developments problems in LDCs attention must focus on the needs of the information user and on the type of information that are becoming available as a result of commercial activity and public sector initiatives. Though efforts to use digital stand-alone or networked distance learning products in the LDCs encounter problems with language teaching, different pedagogical methods, diplomas and curricula, and legal problems concerning copying and use of audiovisual materials (UNESCO 1996) in education field. Although there are still obstacles to ICT, including low penetration, inadequate ICT skills, poverty, and power problems, these factors have not eclipsed the substantial significance of ICT growth in the past few years. ICT has contributed to Nigeria's economic empowerment, by creating new jobs, expanding the revenue base, contributing to industrial growth and developing ICT skills. Nigeria as a case study suggests that ICT is an important agent for economic growth and development.

For the way forward, many international funding agencies like Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation should be involved in the general development of ICT in Nigeria. Such assistance would complement the efforts of Nigerian government in order to leapfrog the higher education institutions and Nigeria in general to the global information society. For instance, UNESCO is supporting a Pilot Virtual University and Virtual Laboratory Project to link initially six Nigerian universities in each of the six geographical zones and the Nigerian Universities Commission. Later, this project will help to link all universities, teachers' colleges, and research institutions in the country.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Nigeria has 446,000 persons in employment in 2003, according to a study commissioned by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). NITDA observed that the study revealed that as at 2003, there were about 14,800 organizations in the country's ICT formal sector. Each of these reportedly employed staff in the areas of programming, processing and network operations, as well as database design and analysis, and technical support, research and development and marketing. Some of the organizations were engaged in two or more activities, but they dealt mainly in IT and telecom.
The significant growth was a reflection of the introduction of GSM services in Nigeria, which generated small scale businesses across the country, as well as a growing number of cyber cafes. Employment in the IT sub sector, was put at 329,594, while that for the telecom sub sector it was put at 116,406 persons. The ICT sub sector has clearly been growing faster than the required manpower growth rate. The situation is such that there have been a lot of criss-cross from job to job by telecoms engineers, computer scientists and persons with various ICT industry certifications. Some highly skilled technicians changed jobs as many as two times last year, moving to the highest bidder. The banks particularly suffered as a good deal of their technical staff were poached by telecoms companies. It is expected that with the increased budgetary allocation made to education, the dearth of skilled ICT manpower will be somewhat ameliorated. It is also expected that more private enterprise will take advantage of this opening. If all the problems numerated will be address and look into, the LDCs will enjoy ICT.